Since I wrote a whole post just about the
tracklisting of the I’m Not There soundtrack, I should probably follow it up with some comments on the actual music.
On the whole, the album is pretty remarkable, though it’s quite a lot to take in a single sitting. Clocking in at over two and a half hours, it definitely has high and low points. Since the high points are so high though, I’d say the album is well worth the investment.
Bob Dylan’s voice is one of the most often-cited reasons people give for not getting into his music. It’s definitely an acquired taste, though I like it quite a bit. One fair criticism of his voice though, I think, is his fairly limited emotional range as a singer. Turning over the vocal duties to a ton of great singers, then, really lets the emotional variety of his song-writing come through.
Cat Power’s totally sexy take on “Stuck Inside Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again” is one of the highpoints, as is Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs voice on “Highway 61 Revisited”: it’s partly dangerous, partly silly, partly just rocking. Willie Nelson, Jim James, and Mark Lanegan add a lot of sadness and heaviness to their songs, as well.
Sufjan Stevens is insufferable as ever - with a six-minute-plus cover of “Ring Them Bells” featuring multiple orchestral breakdowns. I’ve tried a few times to get into him, and managed to like “Illinois” for a few weeks at one point, but I’ve given up on him for now.
The two backing bands, the Million Dollar Bashers and Calexico, are both outstanding, though the Bashers really only get to show off their full chops on “All Along the Watchtower”.
A few more things I thought were interesting:
- Jeff Tweedy uses a later version of the words to ‘Simple Twist of Fate’, with the totally heartbreaking last verse:
People tell me it's a crime
To feel too much at any one time
She should have caught me in my prime,
She would have stayed with me.
Instead of going off to sea,
and leaving me to meditate
upon that simple twist of fate.- In the included version of “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”, they use the modified line “Pull up your tent McGuinn, you ain’t goin’ nowhere”. Dylan recorded that version later as a
slam against Roger McGuinn, who had messed up the words when he recorded his own version on The Byrd’s
Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Ironically, McGuinn also appears on this soundtrack.
- As excited as I was to see Sam Beam reunited with Calexico, I think their track together is just alright. Calexico is great on the album though - their tracks with Jim James and Willie Nelson are absolute standouts.
